What can I expect?

During this practical hands-on course, we will share our approach and techniques for creating engaging science learning experiences. Founded and shaped by research, the course aims to demonstrate the relevance of STEM by linking classroom learning to students’ everyday lives and the experiences that matter to them.

You will get the chance to try out a range of techniques and resources all designed to help you engage your students. All of our resources use easily obtainable materials, so that you can use them in your classroom straightaway.

The key content includes:

Mystery Boxes, a hands-on activity demonstrating how to work scientifically

What can I expect?

You will have the opportunity to try out a range of techniques and resources designed to help you engage your students with STEM subjects. All of our resources use easily obtainable materials, so that you can utilise them in your classroom straightaway.

Sessions on offer include:

Mystery Boxes: a hands-on activity, exploring science skills and how to work scientifically

Facilitation: our top techniques for using questions, images and objects to build students’ enquiry skills and harness their curiosity and personal experiences.

What will I learn?

These sessions will provide you with:

a range of new ideas to use with your class

tools to help you make connections between your science curriculum and students’ everyday lives and interests

ideas to build students’ enquiry and thinking skills

Packed with practical ideas to get the most from a visit to a museum, science centre or your local park, this course will explore the different ways you can use experiences beyond the classroom to support your students’ science learning.

Dates and locations:

Thursday 14 February 2019, Science Museum—London

Tuesday 5 March 2019, Science and Industry Museum—Manchester

Cost: Free for UK teachers thanks to funding from BP. All materials, lunch and refreshments will be provided.

If you have any questions or would like to enquire about booking a course for a large group (up to 30), please contact us at smgacademy@sciencemuseum.ac.uk

What can I expect?

At the Science Museum Group, we welcome over 650,000 educational visitors a year and have a great deal of experience in supporting teachers and group leaders to make the most of their visits.

During this course, you will have the opportunity to try out a variety of practical activities that you could use with your students and discover a range of resources and techniques to build students’ questioning and thinking skills, orientate them to new places and explore STEM content.

Key content includes:

Hands-on activities you can use outside the classroom

Ideas for how to embed these experiences into your classroom teaching

Facilitation ideas for building your confidence in using museum objects, and helping students build their enquiry skills and make personal connections with curriculum content.

Practical advice and ideas for planning a visit

What Will I learn?

By the end of the session you will:

Have a range of new resources and ideas for embedding learning outside the classroom in your science curriculum

Feel more confident to use museum objects with students and help them see the relevance of science to their lives

Have ideas to build students’ enquiry and thinking skills

This course will help you plan and facilitate engaging classroom discussion about contemporary science that everyone can participate in.

Dates: TBC

Cost: Free for UK teachers thanks to funding from BP. All materials, lunch and refreshments will be provided.

What can I expect?

During this course, you will try out a range of practical activities that will help you engage your students with contemporary science subjects and develop their skills and confidence to find their own voice and have a say.

Key content includes:

How to hook students in and help them make personal connections with your topic

How to structure a group discussion to make sure everyone can take part

Facilitation methods to help you keep a discussion going and build your students questioning and thinking skills

What will I learn?

By the end of the session you will:

Have a range of new techniques and ideas for carrying out and recording a discussion lesson

Feel more confident using contemporary science subjects in the classroom

Have new ways of building students’ enquiry and thinking skills

For STEM and museum professionals

During this course we share creative and practical ideas to help you engage different audience groups and feel more confident discussing your work with them.

What can I expect?

Underpinned by evidence from our audience and academic research and shaped by our experience of welcoming over 5 million visitors a year to our museums, we will share with you the Science Museum Group’s approach to science communication and engagement.

From thinking about how to engage different age groups to working out what your key messages and learning outcomes are you will get the opportunity to try out a range of practical activities to inspire you in your next public engagement opportunity.

Key content includes:

Who are your audiences?

Writing key messages and learning outcomes that will shape your event or activity

How to facilitate effective discussions around your content

What will I learn?

By the end of the session you will:

Have a good understanding of how to engage with a variety of different audiences

Understand the importance of writing key messages and learning outcomes and how these can help you develop your content and activities

Feel more confident to interact with the public and facilitate discussions with them around your area of expertise

This course will introduce the concept of science capital and how it can help us understand how people from all backgrounds engage with science and how their engagement might be increased.

Booking: These courses will be available from mid-2019. If you would like to be notified when these dates are announced please contact us at smgacademy@sciencemuseum.ac.uk.

What can I expect?

This course will introduce the concept of science capital and what it means for our work in the informal science learning sector. We will share with you a range of tools to help you reflect on the research and apply a science capital approach to your own work.

The content of this course has been put together as a result of the Science Museum Group’s partnership with King’s College London and University College London through the Enterprising Science project.

Key content includes:

An introduction to the science capital research

How the informal science learning sector can help build science capital

How you can apply the research to your work

What will I learn?

By the end of this course you will:

Have insights into the science capital research

Have an understanding of how informal science learning experiences can help to build science capital

Have ideas that will help you to apply a science capital approach to your work